ARTICLES ABOUT TACONY BY DATE - PAGE 4

The door to Anna's Deli was propped wide open Wednesday morning, with the owner of the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood store behind the counter to greet his regular customers. A little more than 12 hours earlier, the 55-year-old deli owner and his wife were confronted by a 19-year-old armed robber who burst into the small Tacony shop and threatened their lives. But the shopkeeper had a weapon of his own, and returned fire after the gunman shot at him. He struck the would-be robber in the chest, police said, killing him on the spot.

Police this morning continue their investigation into the fatal shooting of a would-be robber last night by the owner of a Tacony deli store. The shootout happened at about 6 p.m. Tuesday at Anna's Deli on the 4400 block of Princeton Avenue. Police say a 19-year-old man approached the deli's cash register, armed with a 9 mm handgun. He then fired two shots at the store owner's wife. That's when the deli owner, identified as a 55-year-old man, emerged from the back of the store with a 9 mm handgun and shot the would-be robber in the chest, according to police.

APHILADELPHIA jury on Friday convicted a Tacony man of third-degree murder for shooting his neighbor during an argument over dog waste. The verdict, which came on the first day of jury deliberations, means the jurors did not buy Tyrirk Harris' testimony that he shot Franklin Manuel Santana in self-defense last Valentine's Day. The panel of eight women and four men, however, also rejected the prosecution's argument that Harris had committed premeditated...

LINDA ANN WESTON, the alleged ringleader in the Tacony "House of Horrors" case, was given a new attorney Monday and will get a second attorney on Thursday at her arraignment and bail hearing. U.S. Magistrate L. Felipe Restrepo told Weston during a brief hearing that she is entitled to two attorneys because federal prosecutors may seek the death penalty against her. "You've been charged with some very serious offenses, very serious," Restrepo told Weston. Last week, federal prosecutors unsealed a 196-count indictment accusing her of a mountain of crimes, including two murders, kidnapping, racketeering, conspiracy, hate crimes, wire and mail fraud, sex trafficking and forced human labor.

A federal judge today replaced the lawyer for Linda Ann Weston, the Philadelphia woman who could face the death penalty after being accused of running a ring that kidnapped, tortured and enslaved mentally disabled people to collect their government benefit checks. U.S. Magistrate Judge L. Felipe Restrepo told Weston that lawyer George S. Yacoubian Jr. "has been doing very noble work without a fee," but that she needed attorneys' with experience in capital cases. Restrepo appointed lawyer Patricia L. McKinney, who has such experience, and said he will consider adding a second lawyer to the defense team.

Federal authorities on Wednesday presented a racketeering indictment against a Philadelphia woman who allegedly enslaved mentally disabled adults to steal their benefit checks, adding hate-crime and murder charges that could expose her to the death penalty. The crimes alleged in the 196-count indictment against Linda Ann Weston and four others include much of the depravity and sadism that emerged when police found the dirty, emaciated victims locked in a Tacony basement in October 2011.

LINDA ANN WESTON, the alleged ringleader of a "family" of violent con artists accused of holding disabled people captive in a Tacony basement to bilk them out of their Social Security checks, was charged federally Wednesday and may face the death penalty, authorities announced. Weston, 52, looking confused and wearing a dark sweat suit, stumbled into court Wednesday to hear the charges against her, which are contained in a 196-count indictment. She is charged with two murders, two counts of sex trafficking, forced human labor and multiple counts of fraud, kidnapping, racketeering and several other offenses.

ABOUT 200 activists from Philadelphia's firefighters union theatrically disrupted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday at the city's first new firehouse in 15 years by staging a walkout as an opening prayer was being said and by chanting criticisms of Mayor Nutter outside the $6.7 million station in Tacony. Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters also announced a petition drive to hold a recall election for the mayor, who has angered firefighters by appealing a series of legal decisions that would award them retroactive pay raises and other benefits.